Category: recipes

I have been fasting with my church for a month and haven’t been able to eat most things except fruits, vegetables, and fish. I had to find ways to get creative with vegetables so that I could switch up the things I was able to eat every day. The vegetable I found to be most unique and easy to transform into different things was cauliflower. I think I am in love lol ❤ Continue reading “The week I fell in love with cauliflower”→

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When my son was a baby, I liked to prep meals for him as well. I pretty much made all of his baby food, except when we were traveling. He LOVED to eat and I made his food from the beginning. I plan to do the same thing with our next child. One of my shower gifts was a Baby Bullet and I definitely put it to work. It is easier than you might think to prepare healthy meals for your baby and you don’t have to own a Baby Bullet to do it.

My husband and I like to eat organic as much as possible, so we wanted our son to eat organic as well. As many of you know, organic baby food can be pretty pricey, but making your own food makes it very affordable.

We started with a brown rice cereal and then moved on to avocado, bananas, peas, pears, apples, squash, sweet potatoes, and zucchini. All of these foods are great foods to start your baby’s eating journey.

As they grow older you can try asparagus, carrots, green beans, white potatoes, oatmeal, and peaches, as well as other veggies and meats. You want to stay away from honey, peanut butter, citrus fruits, raw berries (strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries), egg whites, whole milk, and shellfish/crustaceans.

To make your foods you need either a good blender, food processor, or some sort of food grinder/masher. For my son, we usually did a brown rice cereal mixed with a fruit and/or veggie. To make brown rice cereal you will grind the rice up into a fine powder with your blender and then cook, similar to regular rice, with water on the stove (1/2 cup rice to 4 cups water). You can add more or less water to change the consistency.

I liked to make big batches of the food to last for a few weeks. Fresh food in the fridge will last for about 3 days, but food in the freezer will last about a month. To store my food I used my Baby Bullet containers, but since I made such large batches I also use ice cube trays. These are a great way to store exactly one serving of food. Plus once your baby begins to eat more you can give them different foods at one meal, such as a fruit and a veggie cube. I liked to make two fruits and two veggies, plus rice cereal at one time. That way and I could mix up different flavors and my son didn’t have to eat the same food everyday.

Here are some recipes for beginning foods:

Bananas – 1 banana to 1/4 cup water (blend)

Sweet Potatoes – 1 peeled, steamed potato to 1 cup water (I used the water leftover after steaming since it has some of the nutrients from the veggies in it).

Zucchini – 1 steamed zucchini to 1/4 cup water

Pears – 1 steamed, peeled pear to 1/4 cup water

Peas – 1 steamed cup peas to 1/4 cup water

Squash – 1 steamed squash (remove tips) to 1/4 cup water

Apples – 1 steamed, peeled apple to 1/4 cup water

Avocado – 1 peeled and pitted avocado to 1/4 cup water

(Note: for all foods you can add more or less water to change the consistency)

With all of these foods you will add them to your blender and then blend until they are smooth.

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As promised, here are a few more meal prep ideas. If you missed the first post, check out Meal Prep Pt. 1 for more ideas and a little more information about how I prepare my weekly meals.

First up is Hi-Protein Zucchini Lasagna in a Jar from FitMen Cook (http://fitmencook.com/hi-protein-zucchini-lasagna-meal-prep-in-jars/) for lunch. I LOVE this lasagna and it is very easy to make! I make mine in Pyrex dishes, but he uses hermetic jars. I had a green smoothie for breakfast (spinach or kale, protein powder, frozen fruit) and english muffin. I had an apple and boiled egg for snack and my trail mix.

This prep included a green smoothie for breakfast, salad in a jar (layers: salad dressing, strawberries, chicken, lettuce), and crackers that you can’t see also in the jar, with soup. The snack included a boiled egg, an apple and peanut butter, and carrots with hummus. I LOVE mason jars! They are great for meal prepping and easy to transport to work.

This lunch included sesame ginger tuna lettuce wraps with tomato and avocado.

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As a working mommy, I am a big advocate for meal prepping. Honestly, I even meal prepped prior to having my son because it saved me SO much time in the mornings. Time saved in the morning means more time for me to sleep! 🙂 I pack my lunch (and breakfast) almost every day of the week which saves a lot of money, but is also usually healthier than buying food at work or from a fast food restaurant.

So here is the rundown on how I prep my meals. I usually do my meal prep on Sunday afternoon. I prep a breakfast, lunch and 2 snacks for most days. For breakfast, I pack a grain, protein and usually a fruit/vegetable. For lunch, I pack a protein, vegetable/fruit, and usually a grain. For my snacks I usually do a fruit/vegetable and protein and a trail mix.

Here are a few of my meals to give you some ideas:

For breakfast I am usually pretty basic. I do oatmeal (either old fashioned or steel cut) in a jar. I will add cooked cinnamon apples and nuts or dried fruit and nuts. I cook my oatmeal in batches because it takes a while to cook steel cut and old fashioned oats, so cooking them in advance really helps. I put them in jars and warm them up at work each morning. I will take a boiled egg or greek yogurt for my protein.

(Steel cut oatmeal, cinnamon apples, and roasted pecans)

This lunch prep included chicken quesadillas. I was being a little lazy that week so I bought the pre-cooked chicken (Simple Truth), but usually I will grill some chicken breasts. I added a salad, salsa, plain greek yogurt and avocado to complete the lunch. My husband and I use plain greek yogurt in place of sour cream, which will add a little extra protein to your meal.

Next is one of my non-oatmeal breakfasts. I made egg white, spinach, and mozzarella sandwiches on a thin bagel bread. I cooked the egg whites and spinach in a pyrex dish in the microwave. Then I added the mozzarella cheese, let it melt, and then put them in the freezer. On the day I ate them, I reheated in the microwave and then added the thin bagel bread.

Here is a photo of all my meals for the day. This includes oatmeal and a boiled egg for breakfast, an apple and peanut butter for a snack, homemade trail mix for another snack, and chicken and cheese hand pies for my lunch. With my lunch I added a green salad, carrot, cucumber, and red pepper cold salad, and mandarin oranges with blueberries. I prep EVERYTHING when I do my meal preps, so I boil all my eggs for the week and even put the peanut butter in individual containers for each day. I wait to take my eggs out of the shell the night before I will eat them. My trail mix usually includes cashews, dried cranberries, and almonds. I do trail mix almost everyday because I can eat it in the car and I have a long commute home. 🙂

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I saw this great recipe online for “hand pies.” I decided to give them a try for lunch for a week and they turned out great! They are a great option for a meal prep meal because they still tasted great at the end of the week. Continue reading “meal prep: hand pies”→

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My anniversary was this week and my husband wanted cookies, so his favorites are my white chocolate macadamia nut with cranberries, my chocolate chip cookies, and george washinton’s revenge cookies that are made at a cookie shop in Atlanta. Continue reading “george washington cookies”→